You may also come across PABX, which is Private Automatic Branch Exchange, whereupon the manually-operated switchboard type PBXs were sometimes termed PMBXs, Private Manual Branch Exchanges.
The easy way to tell is look at the telephones attached to the system.
Most non-Field Telephone units visible in WWII RAF and 8AF photos have no dial, just a blanking plate. Any call made via these would have to go through the switchboard operator at the PBX.
Phones with dials will be connected to an automatic exchange, usually the Strowger type. It is the mechanical operation of the connectors that generates the "clickclickclick-whirrrrrr-clickclickclick" you hear through the phone while being after dialling.
Simple explanations work for me Paul!! Thanks for that, it makes sense now!
I was just going through my Kings Cliffe photos and on the site plan it had a PBX marked on it behind the control tower (seems a strange place for it??) and I was racking my brains trying to think!!
The main PBX at Twinwood Farm is close to the Control Tower too.
IIRC the PBX at Kingscliffe is the one that looks like a small "operations block" with the angled windows.
I'm guessing seperate PBXs tend to be an early-war or fighter station thing, and that on Class A stations the main PBX was in the Ops Block, with another in the Control Tower. But again I might be recalling things wrongly.
Ah, the dear old PBX. I remember picking up the phone and asking for Sgt Smith or his extension number, and the operator would say - "Oh, he's on leave this week - I'll put you through to his Cpl" or whatever. This was long before the days of answerphones or call divert or out of office assistant. Pretty sophisticated really.
The best was when you needed on off-base call, and you almost needed to CO's permission to make one. You would then hear all the exchange operators down the line - Hawthorne, Central, etc - as your call trundled across the country. I think this topic first came up on the Binbrook thread.
Not dissimilar to country village exchanges pre STD except they had pitched roofs. Sounds like the same system as well as you could hear the operator earwigging then interupting to say that you need to put another 1s 3d into the box. How she knew how much more I needed to speak escapes me. Mind you I normallly did a reverse charge call shouting over the operator telling mum who it was. All gone by 1970 I think.
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
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